A mixed weather bag on the way, with some freezing rain

All areas of the Lower Peninsula will have some freezing rain Sunday night. The farther south you go, the quicker it will melt off.Mark Torregrossa

The weather system we are watching is still on track to hit the Lower Peninsula this evening. The most dangerous time to travel will be from 5pm today to sunrise Monday. The reason for the danger is a few hour shot of freezing rain in all areas.

Here's a loop of the current radar. There is a scattered area of light snow ahead of the main storm, but it shouldn't cause many road problems. The main area of precipitation will move in this evening.

This timing I'm giving of course depends on where you are located and where you are driving to. But in general, drive now through this afternoon, or wait until Monday morning.

To see a controllable radar forecast click here. This will show you when the precipitation starts and ends here in Michigan.

Depending where you live, temperatures will rise well above freezing on Monday, melting any ice. Salt on roads should also work well Monday morning. So this will not be a major ice storm, but rather a 6 to 12 hour period of dangerous travel.

To see when your location is going to warm above freezing, go to MLive.com/weather. Choose your location and look at the second block of forecasts. That's the hour by hour forecast. You may have to use the arrow on the right side of the forecast to scroll out further in time.

The precipitation will start in all areas as snow, then a few hours later change to freezing rain. The ground surface is definitely cold, so as soon as snow changes to rain it will be freezing rain. The freezing rain will last a few hours to as much as six hours from south to north.

We'll keep you updated here on MLive as this winter mess approaches. The main point I want you to get is don't drive overnight if you can avoid it. Drive today, or wait until tomorrow when roads turn wet.

If you have weather reports for us, we'd appreciate it. Post them in the comments below. Also you can post photos here, or email them to me at mark@farmerweather.com